There is a great lack of knowledge about marine fauna in general, and if we now ask you if a sea urchin or a clam is a shellfish, more than one of us will doubt it. Today we will tell you what is the classification of these tasty seafood products.
The word shellfish is the generic name to identify any type of edible marine invertebrate. But among them we find a more complex classification that tells us that they can be: crustaceans, molluscs or echinoderms.
"Seafood refers to all marine, invertebrate and edible animals and is classified as: crustaceans, molluscs and echinoderms."
If we stick to the etymology of the word to know what shellfish is, it means nothing more than "the one that belongs to the sea". The first piece of information to start with, to begin to distinguish them from other marine species, is that they are invertebrate beings. In fact, according to the Larousse Gastronomique Encyclopedia, shellfish is the name given to any edible invertebrate marine animal.
But this is too broad a definition. Landing on the different kinds of shellfish will be very useful and practical to get to know them, since, although the existing variety is almost endless.
Crustaceans:
They are all those that have a shell, legs and/or claws and bilateral symmetry. There are some who swim and others who walk to get around. Among them we find crabs, lobsters, oxen, carabineros, prawns, lobsters, prawns, barnacles and velvet crabs (and some more).
What is no longer so simple is to know what types of shellfish they belong to. This is marked by the number of legs and, although most crustaceans are decapods, there are also cirropods or those with cirrus-shaped thoracic legs, as is the case with the barnacle.
The decapods, traditionally, are separated into two suborders: those that swim and those that march, or in other words: natantia and reptantia.
At the table we know them as shellfish that are eaten after peeling or on which you have to intervene, even with tweezers, to avoid that strong defense in the form of a shell.
Mollusks:
They are those that have shells (uni and bivalves), such as clams, scallops or scallops or soft bodies such as octopus or squid. This is the broadest category of all, which is further divided into: Bivalves, Cephalopods and Univalves.
They live on the seabed or attached to rocks and the most popular are bivalves, which are those that have two pieces or shells. In many cases, they have no help other than the shell to move in the water, moving based on the momentum generated by opening and closing the valves, although others, such as the cockle, use a muscular foot.
Some species lack fundamental organs and senses. Clams, for example, have no eyes, brain, taste or hearing. Scallops, on the other hand, have spherical eyes sensitive to light, so they enjoy something similar to sight.
Periwinkles and periwinkles belong to this type of shellfish, as well as being part of the family of gastropod mollusks or mollusks with an asymmetrical body protected by a central shell, as well as the clam, the coquina, the galera, the mussel, the oyster and the scallop.
Molluscs are, therefore, shellfish that are presented at the table in their own natural packaging and are eaten by removing the meat from the shell, either in small format and in their natural state, such as canned cockles, or as the basis of an elaborate recipe, such as scallops au gratin from a can of scallops.
Echinoderms:
This is the simplest classification: echinoderms are sea urchins, starfish and sea cucumbers. Of course there are some more, but they are not very well known because they are not applicable to gastronomy.
They are probably the most unknown because not all echinoderms are edible or used in gastronomy. In this sense, the sea urchin is the most popular of the most common seafood of its kind.
Although it may look like nothing more than a sphere with spines, it is a complex animal equipped with a jaw and small, sharp teeth with which it chews and which it also uses to cling tightly to any object.
In this way it can climb and move, although it can also move thanks to the action of its ambulacral feet and the mobile spines of its body.
Sea cucumbers are another type of edible seafood, although they are more typical of other cuisines, such as Asian.
So, is octopus a fish or a shellfish?
Surely you have ever wondered if the octopus is a shellfish or a fish. Well, it is a shellfish belonging to the cephalopod mollusk family, just like squid and cuttlefish. However, there is a difference between them: the number of legs of each one. That is why octopuses are called octopods, and cuttlefish and squid are called decapods.
As marine beings, invertebrates and edible, they already had their place among seafood. Despite this, there is a great deal of confusion surrounding these animals.
We tend to associate seafood only with shells, such as shrimps and their larger cousins, or with those mussels that are so popular among canned seafood, even if they arrive without their characteristic wrapping, as in Frinsa's cans of pickled mussels which, as in all our products, have been extracted by expert fishermen and selected for their quality and are presented in canned format to enjoy the best seafood at any time, whether or not they are in season.
At Pescatore Seafood, we have selected for you the best seafood from all over the world with unparalleled quality and freshness.
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